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Diskutility Cloning to SSD

W

wyattbiker

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 7, 2009
42
4
Hello, I am in the process of cloning and replacing my Mid 2012 Macbook Pro Mt. Lion 10.9 OS X to a 1TB SSD. Does Diskutility clone both the main partition (Macintosh HD) and the Recovery Partition at the same time? Or do I need to run it as two separate cloning procedures. I could not find a link that explains the procedures to make sure both partitions are cloned (I need the SSD disk to be bootable/recoverable). Would appreciate any steps for this without having to resort to CCC or Superduper.

Attached is my Diskutil showing all partitions (I had to enable Debug to see this list). Thanks!

Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 8.29.13 AM.png
 
As far as I am aware, it does not.

Though I'm not sure what you mean by having to "resort to" CCC. It's incredibly straightforward and is guaranteed to work.
 
One more vote for CCC.

After you've tried it, you'll say to yourself, "why didn't I use this first..?"
 
wyattbiker said:
Hello, I am in the process of cloning and replacing my Mid 2012 Macbook Pro Mt. Lion 10.9 OS X to a 1TB SSD. Does Diskutility clone both the main partition (Macintosh HD) and the Recovery Partition at the same time?
Click to expand...

Yep... DU will clone everything over including the recovery partition. There is no need to enable debug mode or anything. Just go to the restore tab and restore Macintosh HD to the new drive and you are done.
 
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wyattbiker said:
Hello, I am in the process of cloning and replacing my Mid 2012 Macbook Pro Mt. Lion 10.9 OS X to a 1TB SSD. Does Diskutility clone both the main partition (Macintosh HD) and the Recovery Partition at the same time? Or do I need to run it as two separate cloning procedures. I could not find a link that explains the procedures to make sure both partitions are cloned (I need the SSD disk to be bootable/recoverable). Would appreciate any steps for this without having to resort to CCC or Superduper.

Attached is my Diskutil showing all partitions (I had to enable Debug to see this list). Thanks!

View attachment 627696
Click to expand...

The wisdom of crowds says CCC can be relied on, and it works for me.
 
gsmornot said:
SuperDuper for instance does not copy it over but the application is frequently used.
Click to expand...
Yes, if we're talking about SuperDuper, then extra steps will be needed, but the advice was given about CCC (and DU) and so my point was that its not a problem the OP should concern himself given the advice provided.
 
maflynn said:
Yes, if we're talking about SuperDuper, then extra steps will be needed, but the advice was given about CCC (and DU) and so my point was that its not a problem the OP should concern himself given the advice provided.
Click to expand...
Fixed
 
Is this a new feature of El Capitan's disk utility? I remember in the past, people always had to use 3rd party software to clone their hard drives when installing their SSDs.
 
RichardC300 said:
Is this a new feature of El Capitan's disk utility? I remember in the past, people always had to use 3rd party software to clone their hard drives when installing their SSDs.
Click to expand...
Nope... as long as there has been a recovery partition (Lion), a DU restore (clone) would copy it over.

I think it is just not well known that DU does this, so people just automatically recommend some other utility when it is really not needed at all.
 
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Weaselboy said:
Nope... as long as there has been a recovery partition (Lion), a DU restore (clone) would copy it over.

I think it is just not well known that DU does this, so people just automatically recommend some other utility when it is really not needed at all.
Click to expand...

Ok so DU worked like a champ, including encryption and recovery partitions. After I made Time Machine backup to another drive, i used theses steps.

First plugin your target USB drive and with the DU erase it, giving it a name such as Mac HD Clone.You can leave default file system (Mac Journaled). Erase is very fast (unless you select secure erase option which takes hours)
  1. Cloning the internal Macintosh HD requires to restart and use the Command+R to open up recovery options menu and clone from there.
  2. Choose DU.
  3. Select the Macintosh HD and unlock it if it was encrypted.
  4. With Macintosh HD selected, Click on Restore Tab. Drag into Source your Macintosh HD, and into Destination your Mac HD Clone. Read the description below to verify that is what you want.
  5. Click on Restore and wait few hours.

When done, If you want to test,restart the computer and hold down the Option key when you hear the sound until Apple logo shows up.
Choose the USB drive to boot from (it will be slower logging in)

When you log in and tries to mount the internal Macintosh HD, you will be asked to unlock it if it were encrypted. (If you don't, you wont see that in Finder but you will see external drive you booted from). Both drives will look exact.
To boot from your internal drive restart and repeat the Option key process. You will be asked to unlock external if it were encrypted. If you cancel it will not mount the external drive.

Disclaimer :): Don't blame me if this messes up. I typed it from memory. I only tried this on Mt. Lion Macbook Pro 2012. Don't know if Apple changed it since.

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 12.29.42 PM.png
 
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